Interesting problem and one of those quirky solutions that start of as a temporary fix and yet become ingrained as standard working practice. May even be few r

Interesting problem and one of those quirky solutions that start of as a temporary fix and yet become ingrained as standard working practice. May even be few related quirky solutions across systems that all add up to the real issue and that may very well of been network timing and without digging deeper and other tests, be hard to eliminate. Was this unique to this system, could it be plugged into a different network port and have same issue, could another system have the same issue. Was the system bios/os levels the same. So many things that without knowing, won't narrow this down. May even be settings of a dip switch on an HS causing timing issues and as these early systems did much in software upon the CPU over dedicated chips and corners saved. System clocks and timing circuits can become one of those things that spring up with the quickest and most intermittent and apparently unrelated forms of fun in IT. Hence the usual process of elimination to narrow it down lacking in this problem and solution outlined and with that, could be many factors at play, even a dying capacitor or a bent ribbon cable/poor connection. SO many possible reasons for it to cause this kinda quirk. But certainly a good example of one of those mysteries you get and real issues that are fun to investigate albeit time/pressure to get things working can and often do see the temporary solution become part of working practice.